Esther 2:1-18 (ESV)
The key themes we’ll read about today:
– God is in control, we are not.
– 450 BC was a long time ago, times are different, culture and the world around us changes. But some things stay the same. God does not change. Our sinful nature does not change.
– Speaking of our sinful nature, we’ll see that the world’s culture is vain and self-serving.
2 After these things, when the anger of King Ahasuerus had abated, he remembered Vashti and what she had done and what had been decreed against her. 2 Then the king’s young men who attended him said, “Let beautiful young virgins be sought out for the king. 3 And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the harem in Susa the citadel, under custody of Hegai, the king’s eunuch, who is in charge of the women. Let their cosmetics be given them. 4 And let the young woman who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti.” This pleased the king, and he did so.
• Ancient days version of “The Bachelor”
5 Now there was a Jew in Susa the citadel whose name was Mordecai, the son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, a Benjaminite, 6 who had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives carried away with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away. 7 He was bringing up Hadassah, that is Esther, the daughter of his uncle, for she had neither father nor mother. The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
• By every account we have these people are faithful to their God even in their situation. She has lost her parents. They are living far away from their historic homeland.
• Yet we know who these people were: their lineage. We know that Mordecai was responsible and a caretaker for his family member, to a certain extent he was a follower of the mosaic law. The Jewish people had a duty to take care of those who could not take care of themselves and here we see Mordecai is obedient, even in the face of exile.
8 So when the king’s order and his edict were proclaimed, and when many young women were gathered in Susa the citadel in custody of Hegai, Esther also was taken into the king’s palace and put in custody of Hegai, who had charge of the women. 9 And the young woman pleased him and won his favor. And he quickly provided her with her cosmetics and her portion of food, and with seven chosen young women from the king’s palace, and advanced her and her young women to the best place in the harem. 10 Esther had not made known her people or kindred, for Mordecai had commanded her not to make it known. 11 And every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the harem to learn how Esther was and what was happening to her.
o Esther’s attitude and posture is evident right away. She is easy going, agreeable, certainly kind and pleasant to be around.
• vs11 Mordecai has not forgotten her. His responsibility to her and his family does not end because of the circumstances they fall in to. It did not end with the exile, did not end with her forced inclusion into this pagan beauty contest and potentially pagan marriage.
12 Now when the turn came for each young woman to go in to King Ahasuerus, after being twelve months under the regulations for the women, since this was the regular period of their beautifying, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with spices and ointments for women— 13 when the young woman went in to the king in this way, she was given whatever she desired to take with her from the harem to the king’s palace. 14 In the evening she would go in, and in the morning she would return to the second harem in custody of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, who was in charge of the concubines. She would not go in to the king again, unless the king delighted in her and she was summoned by name.
• The stakes are laid out. There are two groups, a group of virgins and a group of concubines. Both belong to the king, and each virgin is initiated in to the “second harem”. Each lady gets one opportunity to make an impression, otherwise she will remain in his harem forever.
15 When the turn came for Esther the daughter of Abihail the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his own daughter, to go in to the king, she asked for nothing except what Hegai the king’s eunuch, who had charge of the women, advised. Now Esther was winning favor in the eyes of all who saw her. 16 And when Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, into his royal palace, in the tenth month, which is the month of Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign, 17 the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins, so that he set the royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. 18 Then the king gave a great feast for all his officials and servants; it was Esther’s feast. He also granted a remission of taxes to the provinces and gave gifts with royal generosity.
• Esther is made queen!
• I hope you see what a miracle this is. We have no idea how many women there are for the king to pick from, she was a nobody and yet she finds herself queen.
• We see resilience in her. She did not choose this situation, didn’t sign up for this contest, she was taken away from her family. We don’t see her complaining or grumbling. Every detail we have implies an attitude of thankfulness, gratitude, obedience.
Takeaways:
God’s people should be faithful even when things aren’t going right for us.
• Mordecai didn’t look for excuses. He still upheld his end of what it looked like to be righteous.
God’s providence is real. It is woven throughout this book
• God uses this wretched, messed up situation to show his power, that he is in control.
o To the uninitiated this looks like God is nowhere to be found. Sometimes it feels the same way in our lives. We look around and think God where are you? But…
• As this book shows us, even at his most hidden, God is still there. The Jews are living in a foreign land, the temple has been destroyed. The prophets are few, there is no king.
• This is the exile, and if you are expecting the exodus you’ll miss it. God is not displaying wonderous signs or miracles to free his people. There is no Moses telling King Ahasuerus to “let his people go”. It is subtle. He is still working things together for the good of those who love him.
Divine control does not negate our responsibility to action.
• We Christians still have a role to play and a standard to live up to.
• We want to play our part
This is an important story for us today that details the miraculous ways in which God worked to save his people, the Jewish people, but also how he preserved the line of David to raise a messiah and save all of the earth and mankind through his promise.
Esther’s life took a drastic turn from her wildest expectations, in part because she was obedient to God’s direction.
Will you be obedient? Are you chasing the life you want, or are you open to the life God has for you?
God has big plans for you, but if you are too locked in to how you want your life to look you may miss it.
A woman who put aside what she wanted in her life, was obedient to God’s calling and ends up playing a crucial part in the salvation story for the entire human race. Praise God!